Signaling green: Investigating signals of expertise and prosocial orientation to enhance consumer trust

Abstract

Prior research has established the positive effect of green marketing on purchase intentions. Less well known is why. Two empirical studies were conducted to investigate trust as an important mediator explaining the relationship between green marketing and purchase intentions. In study one, we successfully replicate prior research, again finding higher purchase intentions for companies that engage in green marketing. Additionally, trust in the company was found to mediate this relationship. Study two then examines the underlying mechanisms of expertise and prosocial orientation on the relationship between green marketing and trust, and then serially to purchase intentions. Demographic boundary conditions of age and gender were also investigated. Despite previous research indicating that gender affects perceptions of sustainable marketing, gender was not found to influence trust through perceptions of expertise and prosocial orientation. Interestingly, consumer age was found to influence perceptions of the company's expertise but not prosocial orientation. Younger consumers, specifically those about 38 and younger, believe that companies using green marketing display more expertise compared to those that do not, ultimately increasing perceptions of trust in the company.

Brand implications of advertising products with their reflections

“…According to Signaling Theory, there exists information asymmetry between buyers and sellers in a market interaction as sellers know more about their product, and that puts the buyers or the consumers at a relative disadvantage (Boulding and Kirmani, 1993;Hossain et al, 2018;Manes and Tchetchik, 2018). Particularly, in distant, pre-purchase contexts such as advertising, there remains this information asymmetry due to lack of actual product experience, in which case, consumers then rely on the observable cues that they find in brand advertisements as signals or means to resolve this information deficit (Barone et al, 2005;Boulding and Kirmani, 1993;Kirmani and Rao, 2000;Waites et al, 2020). In other words, observable visual cues available in brand advertisements work as signals in influencing consumer brand perceptions (Kirmani, 1997;Pancer et al, 2017;Rao et al, 1999).…”

“…The current research extends this understanding about reflections to the field of marketing in proposing their negative impact on brand evaluations and outcomes. More specifically, it follows Signaling Theory, which suggests that consumers use the available and observable cues in pre-purchase contexts [1] to resolve their information deficit, to propose that product reflections act as negative signals in brand advertisements and lower brand outcomes (Barone et al, 2005;Boulding and Kirmani, 1993;Kirmani, 1997;Kirmani and Rao, 2000;Waites et al, 2020).…”

“…a low spatial position in the ad frame and tends to be intrinsically light in color (Cavanagh et al, 2008). Therefore, it is proposed that the presence of a product reflection in the ad will act as a negative visual cue in a distant, pre-purchase ad context that will increase consumer uncertainty about the featured product's quality, which, in turn, will lower the proposed brand outcomes (Boulding and Kirmani, 1993;Kirmani and Rao, 2000;Waites et al, 2020). Finally, this research also tests how using a brand's high ad spending information as a confidence signal can be used to counter the negative impact of product reflections on the proposed brand outcomes (Kirmani and Wright, 1989;Moorthy and Zhao, 2000).…”

Consumer behaviour and environmental sustainability

“…They also uncover that such an impact is mediated by consumers' altruistic attributions of the firms' motives behind the sustainable collections (e.g., care about environmental protection and employee welfare). Finally, two studies conducted by Waites, Stevens, and Hancock (2020) reveal that green marketing has both direct and indirect effects on consumer purchase intention. Notably, they develop and validate a unique model that links green marketing with purchase intention through paths from perception of expertise and prosocial orientation to trust.…”

Building consumer communal relationships through cause‐related marketing: From the perspective of persuasion knowledge

“…Numerous brands such as Amazon, Apple, Nike, and Starbucks have successfully used CRM as a positioning strategy to achieve brand differentiation and create symbolic brand values in the competitive marketplace. Despite the popularity of CRM in the corporate sector, a major managerial concern has been consumers' skepticism toward such programs (Amawate & Deb, 2019; Waites et al, 2020). In some cases, consumers question the motives behind companies' CRM initiatives.…”